Contents

Fengjie County is located in the northeast of Chongqing, bordering Wushan County in the east, Enshi City (Hubei) in the south, Yunyang County in the west and Wuxi County in the north. It is 500 km (310 mi) away from downtown Chongqing, and administers 30 townships, 363 administrative villages and 23 residential committee. By the end of 2008, the population of the county is 1.04 million with male population of 540,000 persons, accounting for 51.9% and female population of 500,000 persons, accounting for 48.1%. The area of land cultivated is 58,933 ha. and with a per-capita land area of 0.85 mu.

The GDP of Fengjie County ranked 25th among 40 county-level divisions (counties and districts) in Chongqing and 6th among all divisions in the northeast of Chongqing (11 counties and districts) in 2007. In 2007, the per capita net income of the peasants in Fengjie County is CNY 2,717.

It is known that the "collectively owned" land in Fengjie County were allocated the second time in 2005 after the first time in 1982-1983. Since then, the land has not been reallocated. Fengjie County Government encourages rural residents affected by development projects to become urban residents.

Migrant labor constitutes also an important part of the family income for the local rural residents. In some families, all the members are migrant labor. Their major occupations in urban areas cover restaurant operation, retailing and private business.

The major crops grown in the area include rice, corn, potato, sweet potato, oil plant and vegetable and major animals raised include pigs, cattle, sheep, poultry and fish. Apart from conventional agriculture, cash cropping is also carried out such as the growing of tobacco, navel oranges, cotton, walnuts, and silkworm farming.

Chen Maoguo (simplified Chinese: 陈茂国; traditional Chinese: 陳茂國; pinyin: chén mào guó, aka the "bird man", Chinese “鸟人”) protested against the low compensation received from relocation plans following the construction of a road entailing the demolition of his house. He was sentenced to prison for 3 years.[2]